I’m fairly comfortable with the idea that, with money being equal, Bryce would choose the Nats over any other option.
I will never criticize a professional athlete for taking the most money on the table though. They’ve got a very limited window of their life where their earning potential is high, and they have the opportunity in some rare cases to solidify the financial future of their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Similar results in VA with massive rural turnout and Stewart winning 200k more votes than Warner did in 2014.
Last night sucked. Look, Dems flipped the House and did really well in a lot of races. There’s a check on Trump now. But more than anything, last night showed us what our new political reality is. Rural turnout for Republicans in the Trump era, combined with House gerrymandering and the inherent structural advantage of the Senate, is going to make it REALLY challenging if not impossible for Democrats to hold control of the government for the foreseeable future. We are facing permanent minority rule in the country.
Random thoughts, no order.
Democrats probably lost the 2020 senate race last night. Too many seats to flip.
A Trump re-election in 2020 is more possible than I thought before. Dems may pull within 2-5% in OH, FL, TX and win CA by 30%. You could legitimately see Trump lose the popular vote by somewhere between 5-10% and still have enough electoral votes to get over the hump. This is a really bad situation.
Even if Dems take the WH in 2020, will McConnell fill a SCOTUS seat for Ginsberg’s replacement (assuming she can hang in there for two more years)? I’m not sure he will. And there’s not a thing Democrats will be able to do about it. This is a really bad situation.
TL;DR- our system of government is totally and completely ****ed.

We don’t know that yet. I’ve read everything 538 put out the last few weeks. They basically acknowledge there’s a 15-20% chance the polls are off enough to either give GOP the House or give Dems the Senate (which also gives them 240+ House seats).
Truth is, pollsters don’t have a clue what the electorate is going to look like. They can make educated guesses based on historical data but until the votes are counted, I wouldn’t discount a very large wave that includes at least drawing even in the Senate.

Kanye
Trump’s approval rate is high because the GOP has built in propaganda controls to ensure their messaging is consistent. That’s why you didn’t see any defections with Kavanaugh even after the awful performance at the hearings.
Now... if someone was to decide that Trump was too much of an anchor for their 2020 chances and turned the propaganda machine against him? Fox could sell their base on the benefits of moving on to Pence and it really wouldn’t be that hard.

Some of this may be wishful thinking but I can see it being plausible. Next couple months will play out like this:
-GOP is crushed on Tuesday, instilling doubts among party leaders and donors about how long they can continue to ride with Trump
-Mueller details Trump’s numerous felonies in reports to Congress
-Dem House overwhelmingly votes to impeach
The next step is pretty uncertain to me... after Kavanaugh I have no illusions of the GOP doing the right thing, ever. Any moves they make would be 100% self serving.
But with a Dem House and zero chance of passing conservative legislation before 2020, I can legitimately see party leadership choosing to abandon Trump and agreeing to impeach. Or at the very least, getting a guarantee that he won’t run in 2020 in exchange for letting him remain in office. Either way, after Tuesday I don’t see GOP leadership willing to go into 2020 with Trump at the top of the ticket. There would be too much at stake with foregone conclusions.